doctor. there are a lot of physical illnesses and physical conditions that can look a lot like depression and something else may be going on. also, if you are depressed, your doctor is able to diagnose that as well. >> all right, i'm don lemon. thank you so much for joining us. the cnn newsroom continues right now with ms. ashley banfield. >> don lemon, thank you so much. it's nice to have you in new york, my friend. good to see you in person. 11:00 on the east coast, 8:00 a.m. on the west coast, and you might say north korea is thumbing its nose at the world by launching a rocket this morning that appeared to put a satellite in orbit. the launch moves north korea one step closer to developing nuclear arms missile capable weapons that are possibly capable of hitting us here in the united states. we have north korean video that purports to show the actual launch. take a look. whether a satellite indeed is in

orbit has not been completely confirmed. the north american aerospace defend command, norad, says the rocket deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit. the u.s., japan, south korea and the united nations all denounce the launch with washington, calling it a highly provocative act that threatens regional security. this hour the u.n. security council is meeting behind closed doors on today's rocket launch. that isn't likely to matter to north korea's new, young leader. kim jong un, who appears to be following in his father's foot accepts even dodged calls on this launch. chris lawrence is following this at the pentagon. chris, if you can tell us a little bit about the launch. it might seem surprising, but was it really surprising given the history we have with these

leaders? >> reporter: it was only a surprise, ashley, that it happened last night. they knew this was going to take place, but when north korea asked to extend the launch window to the end of the year, most thought it would come next week at the earliest. i just spoke with a u.s. official who confirms that the object that north korea launched is still in orbit right now, and they're doing their final calculations to determine whether or not it was, indeed, a satellite as north korea claimed. but bottom line, their rocket did go through all three stages, which is a significant jump in technology for them. >> so does this, chris, tell us much about how close north korea is from being able to launch long-range missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads? >> great question. the official i spoke with says he still believes that is some years away because they haven't mastered all the other things they would need to do that. in other words, marrying their nuclear program with the

missile, making a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on the end of a missile, solving the heat shield problems so the missile doesn't burn up when it reenters the earth's atmosphere, and accuracy. being able to hit exactly what you're aiming at. the big worry, though, is proliferation. a u.s. official says what are the working assumptions are going on is that iran may have helped north korea with this launch. i spoke with a former senior adviser here at the department of defense who says iran has been kicking around for quite some time. >> there are rumors and stories that iran has placed some of its people in gung yang and that they're helping out at the test site. there was this rumor or belief before back in april, as a matter of fact. and it's certainly reasonable. there has been some detection of travel back and forth by engineers from iran in the past

and north korean engineers to iran as well. >> reporter: so the worry isn't so much that it will just be contained with north korea but that these advances in technology could spread to other nations as well. >> and what about the timing of all of this, chris? i'm doing the math here. we're five days before the one-year anniversary of the death of his father, we're four days before parliamentary elections in japan and also before the december 19 presidential elections in south korea. is there a coincidence here or was this strategic? >> reporter: probably not. it's always tough to guess the true intentions of the north koreans, it being such an isolated regime. but certainly those three, the elections in south korea and japan, a hard line candidate in japan has been making a lot of hay of that, touting north korea as this real threat to japan. so all of that, and of course the symbolic nature of kim jong

un's father's death obviously playing into all of this. >> all right, chris lawrence live for us at the pentagon. thank you very much for that. this rocket launch in north korea is raising a lot of questions about what that country's leader might be up to, and how apparently this launch succeeded when, without question, a lot of his prior attempts have not gone so well. it also again draws the focus to the troubling fact that the united states and its allies appear to have little or no influence on north korea. joining us with his insight is victor cha, the senior adviser and korean chair at the center for strategic and international studies in washington, d.c. he was also the deputy u.s. negotiator at the six-party talks in north korea six years ago. victor, thanks for joining us. first of all, does this seem as though this is a hand-strengthening action by kim jong un for his international

relations, or was this something more for the consumption of his people back in north korea? >> i think it's a combination of both of them. the failure of the test in april, the one they really publicized was an embarrassment for the young leader just as he was taking power. so he needed to do something to show he could succeed in congering this new horizon under his leadership. you have these leadership changes in china and japan next week, and it gives them a leg up in coming back to the negotiating table as a stronger country because they've demonstrated this long-range technolo technology. >> so you look back at april and the embarrassing failed launch. it has a lot of people wondering how this successful launch could come so quickly on the heels of the other, and it also has people asking who may be helping north korea at this time. obviously, iran enters into the picture when people do discuss

this. is this something that is a game change for us in terms of how to deal with north korea and iran at the same time? >> i think it's a pretty big deal. the april launch was not successful, but if you track their launches going back to 2006, the 2006 and particularly the 2009 tests were fairly successful. so the fact that this one came about, whatever happened in april was something, some mechanical problem was catastrophic, but this test was clearly a success. yes, there is cooperation between iran and north korea. every north korean missile that they have produced has gone to iran. the shahab 1, 2, 3, 4 in iran are all north korean missiles. so there are definitely cooperation in engine rocket testing, and i would imagine this would be a new area of cooperation between iran and north korea now that they've demonstrated this long-range boost technology. >> and also, the issue with

china, just one last quick question from you, the relationship that north korea has with china, their only ally, and yet china was trying to stop this from happening, too. >> yeah, it's truly sort of biting the hand that feeds you because the chinese were actually just in north korea the day before they announced they were going to do this test. and presumably the north koreans were asking them for aid and food, and yet they still go ahead and not only announce the test but defy the chinese and go ahead and do the test. so it is a bizarre relation shim, to say tshi sh ship, to say the least. president obama is saying the united states will now recognize the leading coalition of syrian opposition groups as that country's legitimate representative. that announcement, which was expected, came during an interview with abc. >> the syrian opposition

coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the syrian operations that we consider them the legitimate representative of the syrian people. >> the u.s.'s move is the latest attempt to pressure syria's president, bashar al assad, to end the war and step down from his people. arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks.

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powerful liquid relief speeds to the source. fast. [ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kaopectate. two people are dead after a shooting near portland, oregon last night. a masked gunman ran through a giant mall that was crowded with close to 10,000 holiday shoppers. and if that's not a frightening thought, he was wearing a hockey mask and shooting indiscriminately as people were terrified and were running for cover. some of the shoppers hid under store counters, some of them behind racks of clothes. many of them screaming in fear. and at the santa village where kids were all lined up for photographs, gunfire forced the santa to hit the floor. >> i heard two shots and then after that i heard about 15, 16 more shots and decided that that was gunshots, so i hit the floor.

>> authorities arrived within minutes. this was the scene from one cell phone camera inside the mall as people were being escorted out with their hands in the air surrounded by all sorts of security agents, police officers who responded. by the end of the ordeal, two people, as we said, had been shot dead. a young woman is also fighting for her life in the hospital, and the gunman had apparently killed himself. among those terrified shoppers at the mall was hollywood. she was buying a dress for her daughter when the gunshots went off. holly is here to talk about what it was like. it's incredible when you see a picture of a santa knowing he was surrounded by kids when these gunshots started going off. what was it like at that moment when you started hearing the shots? >> caller: you know, at first it was obviously not something that you registered in your mind, then when you saw the chaos of people running and yelling and

having to exit, saying that someone is shooting, then you just go into the fight or flight mode and try to get to an exit. it was very chaotic. >> were you a witness to these scenes of people being escorted out by all the police officers and being asked to have their hands in the air? >> caller: i was after the fact. i was in a location originally when i came out of a macy's they were moving us to islands or the sidewalks, you know, but not too far. when they had arrived, they did lock down the mall at a certain point where people were not allowed to leave until they were escorted out by different police. but, you know, there were just kind of people around. they had moved some across the street to another shopping center called clackamas promenade, you know, where people were just kind of watching different law enforcement and ems. it was very, very busy. >> holly, you know, with over a

million square feet at that mall and the statistic is there were somewhere around 10,000 shoppers, there had to be thousands of children. did you see how the kids were reacting in this crisis? >> caller: i know that there were children around me, you know, the parents were very quick to grab them, you know, and run with them. there have been a bunch of stories in our local news about people helping each other out, grabbing a little four-year-old boy and running with him with the mom because she couldn't carry him. it was just -- a lot of people working together, but yes, there were multiple children there. i had gone to this mall my whole life. my daughter goes there every year to see the santa. his face is very familiar around here. you know, seeing him on the news and how he reacted, it hits home. >> well, holli, we're glad you're okay and we're very appreciative of your help this morning in trying to figure out what this was like. it's good you're all right. thanks for being with us.

>> caller: thank you. bye. >> holly joining us from oregon. piers morgan is going to take on the topic of gun rights and gun violence in america tonight. y, ♪ questions? anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'.

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on the rare occasion that there is promising news in the field of cancer treatment, we sit up and we take notice. sometimes it's just baby steps, but sometimes it is jaw-dropping news. like in the case of emma whitehead, a seven-year-old girl who last year was on the brink of dreath. battling leukemia, doctors tried over and over for two years to treat her with chemotherapy, but it didn't work. then they decided to try something else: hiv. the virus that causes aids. this is why we sat up and took notice on this story. a little girl being injected with hiv, a virus that attacks you from within. doctors hoping a disabled version of that virus would instead attack the cancer coursing through emma's blood. it's an amazing story, but one year later, here's emma. how about that? a transformation no less than astonishing. her immune system has

effectively been reprogrammed, and her leukemia is now gone. emma is at school today. that's great news. she's there with the rest of her friends in phillipsburg, pennsylvania, but her mom and dad are with me right now live by skype. how are you and how is emma? >> we're doing great and emma is doing really incredible right now. >> that's just fantastic to hear. the pictures were amazing to see her a year later. but you guys had to have gone through sheer hell over this. >> yes, we did. that was a very tough road to get through, and emma was our inspiration through it all because she never complained through the treatment. >> disabled or not, when anybody hears hiv, that strikes fear, and the doctors were suggesting to you that's what they wanted to use on her. how did you get over that hump? how did you get the explanation you needed to take this huge

risk? >> well, they actually took her cells out and put the hiv with the cells in the lab and grew them in the lab, and they weren't sure of the results they could get from it. they said the science backed it up that it should work. but the one thing they could guarantee us from the beginning is that she could not pick up hiv from this treatment. >> you got the guarantee on that? >> yes. they said that was the one thing they were sure of in this treatment, is the virus was deactivated before they used these cells. >> nonetheless, it had to be a really tough decision given the fact that, as i understand it, she is the first child in the world to attempt this treatment. >> it was, you know, a difficult decision, but we also knew that it was really the last option for emily. at that point she didn't have options, so we talked it over and just felt really comfortable

after talking with the doctor and the rest of the team. we were just really hopeful this was going to work, and, you know, it really was her last option. >> now there -- when doctors talk about curing cancer, they're always careful to couch it in the kind of terms that are realistic. how have they described emma's -- her condition now? is she truly cured? is it gone? is it one of those things you just have to wait and see? >> well, you know, as we were told from the beginning, and you learn quick when a family member has cancer, that you don't use the word cure for quite a while afterwards, but she's in remission right now, and just recently they looked at 1 million cells from emily and found not one cancer cell in her system. we go in january for a bone marrow check which would be nine

months since her remission, and the cells, the modified genetic t-cells still show up in her peripheral blood and no cancer cells. >> i want to make sure i'm getting her name right. i've been reading all this material on emma, but you're calling her emma lee. i hope i'm not mistaken. >> her real name is emily, but she decided about a year ago she preferred to be called emma, so she's been called emma a lot recently, but we still call her emily. >> she puts her mind on something and she can get it, sflit. >> exactly. >> when she first told me, i said, emma sounds like a good nickname, and she said, i would like to know when i can legally change my name to emma. >> i like that. this is going to be the first christmas at home for her in what, two years? is that right? >> yes. >> that's got to be something pretty special for you guys. do you have something very special planned? >> you know, we're just going to

do our usual christmas, really nothing special. we're just going to have a lot of family over and just do something simple. we just want to take that time to enjoy emily and enjoy being with our family this year. >> you know what, just doing something normal in itself in this particular case is extraordinarily special. karen and joe whitehead, your story is very special. thank you for being with us. >> thank you and have a great day. >> you, too, and have a wonderful, wonderful holiday as well. we're going to continue this story because coming up next we're going to speak with emma's psychologist about pioneering this cancer treatment and how it came up in the first place. coming up after the break. [ female announcer ] chex party mix. easy 15-minute homemade recipes you just pop in a microwave. like caramel chocolate drizzles. happier holidays. chex party mix. something this delicious could only come from nature.

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we're going to wake the world up. and watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. cisco. tomorrow starts here. hurry in and try five succulent entrees, like our tender snow crab paired with savory garlic shrimp. just $12.99. come into red lobster and sea food differently. and introducing 7 lunch choices for just $7.99. salads, sandwiches, and more. the fact that emma or emily whitehead is going to be home for christmas this year is nothing short of a miracle, because last year she was literally dying of leukemia.

we talked with her parents about a revolutionary cancer treatment that brought her back from the brink of death. it had never been tested on a child before emma. >> it was scary, really scary. >> really scary, from the mouths of babes, because the experimental treatment using hiv was emma's only chance at surviving, and the process itself nearly killed her. let's bring in emma's oncologist, dr. steve krups, who helped pioneer this ground-breaking treatment as well as cmn correspondent elizabeth cohen. dr. krups, i'm glad to have you here, because i think the first question, where did the idea of using the deactivated version of hiv, where did it even come from in the first place? >> thanks a lot for allowing me to answer your questions. so the treatment that emma got was actually a cell therapy treatment. i think tom and kerry did a

great job describing that to folks. what we did was take cells called t-cells, we take those out of the body. we expose them to a virus that we can put a new gene into the t-cells, that's called genetic engineering, then we put the t-cells back in the body, we don't put the virus back in the body. it's true it started out as an hiv virus, and we take out all the parts of the virus that can cause disease and only leave the part that can actually put that new gene into the cell for the genetic engineering. this idea has been around for a while, but it's only recently that this sort of cell therapy has actually been helping patients. >> so, you know, as we understand, the process itself has a heck of a trajectory. i mean, it does a lot to the patient who has to go through the process. what are some of those examples of how difficult this was for emma to endure? >> well, emma did get sick as a result of her t-cell therapy.

everybody who has gotten this therapy so far who has responded to it, and 9 out of 12 people who have gotten it have responded, have gotten some degree of illness, they've gotten high fevers, they've gotten muscle aches, they felt like they had a terrible case of the flu. a few people actually did get sicker and emma was definitely one of those people. for a few days after she got her t-cells, she was actually sick enough to need care in an intensive care unit, but we learned something verymportant from emma. we learned how to block the immune activation that was making her sick. she got better very rapidly after we treated her with a new medication, and since then she's been doing great. >> so what she went through helped you deal with other patients. that's incredible. i want to bring in elizabeth cohen on this because when i read that the t-cells turn into cancer cell killers, essentially, what applications

does this have for the other cancers out there and how to use it to treat other cancers? >> dr. krups said there was a response of 9 out of 12 of these patients with blood cancers, with lymphomas and leukemias. so the hope is you can take this principle and use it, perhaps, for other cancers. but we're not quite there yet. you don't move from an experiment like this on 12 people and move it on to every cancer, but the hope is that this principle will apply. >> so let's talk a little bit about what her life is going to be like from here on in. her parents were very careful, dr. krups, to say that you never cure cancer. she's going to have to undergo a regular treatment. is it for the rest of her life, and what is it that she's going to have to undergo? >> so first off, we don't like to use the word cure until enough time has passed. people are absolutely cured of their cancers and we have every hope that emma might be cured of her cancer. but we need more time to be able

to say that for any person who has been treated with my kind of treatment, including the cell treatment. when we reach several years out from her treatment, if there is still no evidence of her leukemia, at that point we would say that she's cured but she's only eight months out from her treatment and we need more time. >> and i know, elizabeth, you were curious about what happens in terms of a possible relapse and treatments. i know you wanted to ask the doctor a question, too. >> dr. krups, god forbid if emma were to relapse and get cancer again, can you use this treatment on her again since it worked so well the first time? >> the answer to that question is there is no reason we couldn't use it again. what we hope, actually, is that this kind of cell therapy treatment, because the cells stay in the body for a long period of time, we're eight months out with emma and more than two years out with some of the initial adults, we still see those cancer-fighting t-cells in the patients. so as long as those t-cells are in the patient, we have the possibility of preventing any

potential later relapse. if for some reason her leukemia would come back, we would have the option to give these cells again. >> oh, dr. krups, it's just a great story and we're very thankful that you brought it to us. we're even more thankful that you did it successfully. dr. steven gruff and elizabeth cohen, happy holidays. >> thank you very much. emma is in school as a second grader. she plays soccer and reads more than four dozen books per month and she is loving being a kid.

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it is 20 days now until the new year and 20 days until the dive off the fiscal cliff. we do not like harping on this, trust me. but as house speaker john boehner reminded us just a short time ago, there is still no deal

on the table. he and president obama spoke on the phone late yesterday after trading offers back and forth, and although there is a lot of talking going on, they haven't necessarily agreed on anything yet, certainly not that they're making public. this is what the white house's offer looks like as it stands. a $1.4 trillion request for new tax revenue. that is down from the last offer which was a request for $1.6 trillion in revenues. still too high, though. it also includes some new stimulus spending, an increase in u.s.'s borrowing limit and a plan to overhaul the corporate tax code. here's what speaker boehner said last hour. >> his promise to bring a balanced approach to solving this problem is mainly tax hikes. and his plan does not begin to solve our debt crisis. it actually increases spending.

our plan meets these standards, it cuts spending and paves the way of real job growth in our country. in the five weeks since we signalled our willingness to forge an agreement with the president, he's never put forth a plan that meets these standards. and frankly, that's why we don't have an agreement today. the longer the white house slow walks this discussion, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff and the more american jobs are lacplaced in jeopardy. >> well, they talk and we all listen and then we decide who we appreciate more. it's in the form of a poll who is handling these negotiations better. the latest abc news "washington post" poll says 49% of americans think president obama is doing a better job of all of this, while only 25% say they approve of speaker boehner's efforts. those aren't the numbers you want to see if you're the speaker right now.

our senior congressional correspondent dana bash has been working her sources throughout the morning, joining me live now from washington. one of the things i see, dana, that's so frustrating, is we get a lot of rhetoric on television and we hear later about secret conversations. i just wonder how much rhetoric is going on behind closed doors or if they're really getting closer. >> reporter: well, you just mentioned there was a monphone l between the speaker and the president, and by all accounts, it really did not go well. i'm learning new information about why that may have been. i talked to a democratic source that the counteroffer the house republicans sent back to the white house late yesterday included a call for a permanent extension of bush era tax cuts for the top 2%. you know we've been talking constantly about the fact that the biggest divide between the two when it comes to taxes is that tax break for the wealthiest. so this democratic source who i talked to familiar with the proposal said this was a sign to the white house that the republicans are either unwilling

or not capable of offering something that can pass the house and the senate and, more importantly, that the president can sign, because he has said he does not want to -- he wants to raise tax rates for the wealthiest americans. i will tell you, republicans who i spoke with countered that that doesn't make sense to them, that the republicans' whole intention is to deal with the bush era tax rates right now because you have to deal with that, but that down the road they want to reform the tax code. so there is a little chewing and throwing going back and forth over this point, but the bigger picture, it seems to help explain why the president and the speaker did not have a good conversation, and that is something that i asked the speaker about earlier today. lir listen to what he said. >> i didn't say it was tense. listen, there were some offers exchanged back and forth yesterday, and the president and i had a pretty frank conversation about just how far

apart we are. >> reporter: of course, from the republicans' perspective, what they've been saying publicly, even more over the last 24 hours or so, is that they're frustrated and the speaker expressed this frustration behind closed doors to his republican caucus. they're frustrated because they don't think the white house has done enough on their position of cutting more spending from the government. >> if speaker boehner is talking about making permanent those tax cuts for the wealthiest 2%, how does that wear with the tax reform down the road? >> reporter: that really is the crux of these conversations' been having with the sources today. what the democratic source said is the reason why the white house has their back up is because any tax reform would not include any tax rate that's higher than current law, which is a non-starter for the

democrats, but they said they wanted to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2%, tax rates on the wealthiest 2%. again, i will tell you that republicans i'm talking to says, well, that may not be the case, that we will change the tax code when it comes to tax reform. so what exactly happened between the two, they're secretive, as you say, we don't know exactly what was on the paper except for the fact this is an indication of how these two sides really seem to be talking past each other, even when it comes to the president and the speaker. >> all right, dana bash, thank you. it feels like we're back to square one again, so clearly you and i will continue this kind of conversation. dana reporting for us live on capitol hill. innovator and entrepreneur richard branson has been talking with our own suzanne malveaux about the fiscal cliff and also about the republican party becoming more electable. have a listen. >> the republican party you

could change so they were more fiscally huge but they also cared about the individual and they cared as much about the gay person living in america, as the single mother, as the woman that, you know, can't -- just can't have her eighth child or her ninth child, et cetera, et cetera. being a little more caring and understanding would make republicans more electable. >> stay tuned for this exclusive interview. it's coming up on cnn international with suzanne malveaux. all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm going b-i-g. [ male announcer ] good choice business pro. good choice. go national. go like a pro.

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if washington continues its political game of chess on the financial fiscal cliff, the people outside the beltway are watching and waiting and they are really worried about how the fallout could affect their lives, their personal economies, as our christine rawlins likes to call them.

christine actually had a chance to speak to folks about the microlevel of what it means to us despite all the haggling on the hill. what did you find out? >> i found out people are really nervous about where this is going because it affects them right now. i talked to a woman with a b.a. in accounting, she has six kids, the youngest is 11. she's been out of work since april, and she's terrified that on february 29 she's going to lose her extended unemployment benefits. you've been looking for a job for more than six months now. are you optimistic or pessimistic that things will turn around? >> i think things will turn around. it's going to take time, but i believe it's going to happen. >> and you need the government to help now so that can happen? >> yes, i do. i still have bills to pay, and i need help. i need help. >> she is selling her stuff and she's looking at two 401(k)s that she's hoping not to have to

raid, but she thinks things are looking better next year. and that's what's interesting. when you look at this, 43% say they're optimistic about the year ahead compared to 24%. they think, ashleigh, that things are going to start getting better but they just aren't feeling it just yet. >> i tell you something that's frustrating, when you read a report that suggests our household and personal debts as americans actually dropped in the last quarter by $74 billion. people apparently reducing their own personal debts by 2 trillion since the peak back in 2008. so if we can do it personally, you know, if people like the ones we've spoken to have been tightening their belts, nobody seems to be doing that on the micro level. >> let me show you an interview with someone from new jersey. they are seeing less demand and they're making adjustments and they're furious, furious about their lawmakers. >> it's not enough for congress

to come along and say, okay, we've decided on this deal for 2013. >> uh-huh. >> i think the political class is loving this detention. we're all sitting here on pins and needles and baited breath waiting for they on high to decide our futures. it would be really nice if we could get back to the point where they say, here's the rates, here's the deappreciation, here's withholding, here's what fica and social security is going to be, and let the rest of us go do what we're supposed to do which is help alicia get a job. >> can you imagine if you're running a business and you don't know what your payroll is going to look like? you have to wait to see how to change your payroll software for the first day of january? that's just a couple weeks away. they need to know what to do now. >> and you can't do anything because you don't have the decision to do so. january 1st comes along, and we proverbially fall off the fiscal cliff. where will we feel it first? >> it's one thing after another.

first thing is the payroll tax holiday. right away the first week you would have less money in your paycheck. people like alicia immediately would lose that check, and there's going to be 2 million people at the end of december who would lose their checks and another million by the end of the first quarter who would lose their checks according to the national employment law project. and your tax rates could go up for everyone. you could pay a higher tax rate, and guys like jeffrey sheninger have to figure out how to change that when you get paid by your company. >> effectively on january 1st we start to feel it if your employer can get their software changed. whether you see it on your check or not, it's going to be there ultimately at some point. bad news and very interesting news at the same time. >> i love her outlook about next year, though. even alicia has a promising outlook on next year. she thinks it will look better, and that is what carries her

through. >> christine roman, thank you. i also want to let you know that one of the people christine was speaking to was a college student who can't even wrap their minds around the fact that his student loan debt is around a trillion dollars. his concern is whether he can even find a job once he graduates. back after this. 315 horsepower. what's that in reindeer-power? [ laughs ] [ pencil scratches ] [ male announcer ] chevy's giving more. get the best offer of the year -- 0% apr financing for 60 months plus $1,000 holiday bonus cash. plus trade up for an additional $1,000 trade-in allowance. hurry. bonus cash ends january 2nd.

>> how are you? >> it's hard to believe, but chelsea roth says one day at the age of 15 part of her brain died. >> i now know from looking at hospital records that i was 58 pounds. >> 58 pounds, and close to dying because so many parts of her body were failing.

there are no pictures of roth at her sickest. this was taken about a year earlier, but she remembers how starting a diet with her mom in the midst of a traumatic childhood spiralled into anorexia. >> looking back, i think my body was my only way to tell the people around me that something wasn't okay. >> help came for roth when she was hospitalized for 18 months following her stroke. >> i had a bed, i had nurses and doctors that showed up every day and were consistent. i had food, and i had water. i was finally getting like digestive function back. >> as part of her recovery, her therapist suggested roff try to yoga to start to listen to to her body again without burning too many calories. time on her mat helped her gain confidence, learn to interact with people and slowly change her personality. today she writes and shares her story with other patients that struggle with eating disorders as well as her loved ones.

>> i tell girls i'm not aafraid of my fullness. >> she's quick to point out yoga is not a cure for anything. it helped her rebuild her life as a tool. >> you can live in your body fully. you can have happiness, and that's for me the biggest thing. >> dr. san gupta, cnn, reporting. okay? holiday barbie -- under $33! that's a savings of over 10 bucks! seriously! yeah. that's crazy -- our girls would love that! from the red carpet -- best christmas ever. fisher-price servin' surprises kitchen -- $39.97 on rollback. that's a great price. that's twenty bucks less than toys 'r' us. wow! on these two toys -- you could save over 30 bucks versus toys 'r' us. thirty bucks?! that's crazy. more gifts under the tree! see for yourself -- bring in your christmas list and see if you could save on the brands you want. walmart. something this delicious could only come from nature. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener

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right-to-work state. this happened when michigan's republican governor rick snyder steined two bills yesterday that essentially allow workers to have the freedom to join a union or not. it restricts unions from requiring people it to pay dues and join them in a company. one deals with private sector workers. the other deals with public employees. the angry opponents took to the streets in the days leading up

to the votes. the governor calls the measures pro-worker and pro-michigan. a democratic lawmaker said passing these bills is, quote, an act of war on michigan's middle class. this might be a sign of times. the pope has entered twitter. i love this picture. i just love it. pope benedict xvi posting his first mess an at the vatican. thank you for your generous response. i bless all of you from my heart. within an hour the pontiff had achieved 700,000 english-speaking followers on his account. his handle if you want to get with the program is @pontfx. get ready for another member of the bush